Vincenzo Catena

Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 11 June 1971, lot 96;
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 12 July 1972, lot 74, for £6,500, where acquired by the present owner.

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Vincenzo Catena. Madonna and Child with St Mark and St Jerome. This painting has been thinned and marouflaged, perhaps in the 1970's. There were many slanting cracks in this panel, conceivably a single piece of poplar. The quite old varnish is rather opaque to ultra violet light, although there have been fairly wide, more recent areas of retouching mainly in the sky, where there seems to have been flaking losses presumably leading to the marouflage, and probably past wear as well connected to the cracks. Under ultra violet light various patches can be seen across the middle of the panel, often in the sky between the figures but also within the figures sometimes, for instance in the St Mark's blue drapery and in the head of the Madonna, which appear to be recently retouched cleaning tests. Small older retouchings can also be seen scattered in various places. The Child seems to have remained finely intact generally, and the hands of the Madonna are particularly beautiful. The grandeur of the drapery overall also remains apparently largely intact, with some fairly superficial darkened retouching for instance on the cowl of St Jerome. The Saints's heads may also have survived quite well, although the head of St Mark has many retouchings. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Catena is perhaps best known for his sacre conversazioni of which this is a particularly fine example. It is a late work, probably painted around 1520–25, when Catena’s style approaches that of Andrea Previtali, especially in the greater sense of softness to the modelling of his figures.

The composition of the Virgin and Child is closely related to that of the painting formerly in the George Winterbottom collection, London.¹ In that painting the figures are set before a simple wall with two windows either side and the Virgin looks up and out to the left rather than down towards the Christ bénissant as here. The model of the Virgin’s face, more rounded in its features than those of his earlier works, was first used by Catena in the Virgin and Child with two music-making angels recorded in the Richard Auspitzer collection, New York, and can also be linked to the even earlier Holy Family with the Baptist, St. Catherine, St Louis and donor in Berlin.² It is used again in another sacra conversazione, featuring Saints Jerome and John the Baptist, in the Hermitage. St. Petersburg.³ That painting sets the figures before a wonderfully broad and open sky with no landscape discernible, as here, and the two paintings likely date to a very similar moment.

1. See G. Robertson, Vincenzo Catena, Edinburgh 1954, p. 64, cat. no. 41, reproduced plate 24.
2. Ibid., p. 49, cat. no. 19, reproduced plate 17, and p. 54, cat. no. 28, reproduced plate 23.
3. Ibid., p. 55, cat. no. 29, reproduced plate 24.